Fau`s Interim President Made Only One Big Wave

December 15, 1989|By JON MARCUS, Staff Writer

After he officiates at today`s commencement at Florida Atlantic University, interim President John Ryan will follow the 1,245 graduates out the door.

Ryan`s five-month stay at the Boca Raton-based state university formally concludes on Dec. 31, the day before President-elect Anthony Catanese takes office. But Ryan said he plans little involvement after the commencement.

Ryan, 60, the president emeritus of Indiana University, made his share of organizational changes -- and headlines -- despite the short length of his term.

The brief administration was meant to bridge the gap between the departure of Helen Popovich, who resigned, and the arrival of Catanese after a time- consuming search. Ryan was not a candidate for the permanent job.

On Aug. 4, he inherited a campus shaken by a critical state audit that found mismanagement and other problems. FAU also was under political pressure to expand its Broward County programs and was plagued by faculty morale problems.

By November, the state Board of Regents was showering him with accolades for providing strong leadership to FAU at an extremely critical time.

Regents passed a resolution that records show was written for them by the university, lauding Ryan for smoothing the transition from one president to another, spearheading the development of plans for new programs in Broward and north Palm Beach County, rebuilding alliances with the community, adding internal auditors to establish management controls, embarking on a study of the university`s administrative structure and strengthening morale and pride.

In fact, no such administrative study is under way, and even Ryan deflects credit for many of the other changes. It is not known who wrote the resolution; a secretary`s is the only name that appears on the university`s draft.

``I might not have described my tenure in the same way,`` Ryan said.

Still, he said, ``All of these have been getting the attention they need. I don`t want to over-emphasize, and I can`t evaluate, how key my involvement has been. They gave me credit for it. That`s nice. It did happen on my watch.``

Senior Laura Hexmer of Fort Lauderdale, a psychology major, said, ``I don`t see how he could have been expected to make too many changes. He was temporary.``

Rachel Jacoba, a junior nursing student from Dayton, Ohio, said Ryan ``did absolutely nothing while he was here, to be honest. He took a very neutral position, that he was temporary and he wasn`t going to do anything.``

And Lynn Appleton, spokesman for the faculty union, said: ``At organizations that are experiencing rapid changes, like this one, there`s almost a superstition that grows up that new leaders will solve all the problems, will make things better. Dr. Ryan was placed in a very difficult position. Maybe the expectations were too high.``

Critics carped at Ryan for being only a part-time chief executive -- ``the carpetbagger president,`` he jokes -- because of the number of days he spent away from the campus. He is paid a $105,768-a-year salary, or $2,034 a week, in addition to the $125,000-a-year salary he earns as president emeritus of IU.

In the 94 business days of his term, Ryan worked at FAU just 44. Records show that he left the school almost as soon as he got there, mostly for speaking engagements or meetings that had been scheduled before he got the job. He was on campus just two days the first week of school and none the second.

Ryan`s office desk is bare of momentos. Nothing hangs on the walls.

``I`ve been here attending to the duties that I`ve perceived as mine as much as I could, and that`s all the time that was available,`` he said. ``On the other hand, this is a university that is important enough to get the full-time attention of its president. I`ve given as much time as I`ve been able.``

Perhaps the biggest controversy during Ryan`s term followed the firing of a vice president with many friends among the university`s financial contributors.

Ryan fired Adelaide Snyder, vice president for university relations and FAU`s longest-serving employee so as to reorganize her department, which encompassed public relations, alumni services, fund raising and development.

But Snyder had the support of the university`s fund-raising arm, the FAU Foundation. The outcry over Snyder gave the school a monthlong migraine that was settled only last week with a tenuous truce, and the foundation has moved off campus.

``It may well be that the action that was taken could have been taken in some manner that produced less anxiety, less resistance, less hostility, less tension,`` Ryan said, repeating: ``If I had to do it again, I can`t see doing anything much differently.``